Text: Vice President Gore Interviewed
on CNNWednesday, November 29, 2000

Following is the transcript of Vice President Gore's interview with CNN's
John King

JOHN KING: Well, let's get to the basics. The Republicans, every day
now--it's been 22 days since the election--and Secretary Cheney again today,
you know, trying to deliver a public message to convince the American people
this is over, saying it is time for to you step aside and stop fighting in the
courts an election, they say, you lost at the polls.

VICE PRESIDENT GORE: All the votes haven't been counted yet. And our
democracy depends upon the principle of each person who wishes to vote, and
is eligible to vote, and casts a legal vote, having that vote counted. The idea
that people in charge of the election machinery can arbitrarily decide that
some votes from areas where it might make a difference that they don't want
to see make, and just arbitrarily set them aside, that's wrong--or for whatever
reason they might decide to set some votes aside and just not count them.

That's wrong. The principle I'm fighting for, John, is that every single vote
that's legally cast must be counted. And that--you know, that--it seems so simple
and clear to me. I feel strongly about it.

KING: But they would argue you're asking for special treatment in the
sense that those ballots--let's take the 10,700 in Miami-Dade County--that they
were run through the machines and that the machines registered no vote for president.
They would argue this happens, and that you're asking for all those to be manually
inspected is asking for special treatment, not

(CROSSTALK)

GORE: Not at all. No. The law requires that when they are--when they
have to be counted by hand--the machine doesn't pick them up, they have to be
looked at and counted. Let me ask you this. Have you ever gone through the supermarket
checkout line and they run the scanner computer over your items? What happens
when it misses one? Do they give it to you for free?

No. They do a hand count of that item. And those computers are far more sophisticated
than these Votomatic machines. That sounds like something out of the" Jetsons."
And in fact, those machines are much more statistically likely to be found in
low-income areas, with populations that don't have the big tax base to have
the fancier up-to-date machines that don't make very many mistakes.

KING: There is a political battle going on, of course, during your
legal challenge. And some ask if you feel so strongly that you won the election--and
obviously, you do. Why not just come out and turn the tables on them and say:
I believe I won the election. And I believe they are trying to steal the election?

GORE: Well, I've never used the phrase" steal the election." I think
that's an intemperate phrase. And I think that both Governor Bush and I have
an obligation during this period when the votes are yet to be counted to try
to pave the way for whichever one of us wins to be able to unify the country.

You know, the only way to avoid having a cloud over the next president is
to count all the votes. Because our country is based on the consent of the governed,
and the consent of the governed can only come through a vote by the people.
And all the people who vote legally have to have their votes counted; that's
the basic principle. If all of the votes are counted, that's the best way to
confer legitimacy on the outcome of the election.

And, you know, in a close race, which by definition is usually one where the
passions are running high and the feelings are very strong, it's even more important
than in any other kind of race to make sure that the outcome is one that's determined
by the will of the people, by the votes cast by the people, not by politicians
who have control of the election machinery and who decide, for whatever reason,
to let some votes in that are legally cast and take other legally cast votes
and exclude them.

That's wrong. And if the election is determined that way it would present
a serious risk for the ability of whoever is the winner to bring the country
together.

KING: Let's--I want to you to take me a, if you will, inside one aspect
of your legal strategy. Your attorneys have been pushing and are now appealing
to the Florida Supreme Court to speed up the process in the contest through
which the judge would bring the ballots into the courtroom and start looking
at them: the ballots from Miami-Dade County, as well as the 3,000-plus from
Palm Beach County.

There is a legal argument there, but is there not also a political argument
in the sense that you know what the public opinion polls say, you know it's
been 22 days and we are an impatient society, how important is it to you politically,
as part of that legal strategy, that the American people actually see, see they're
still counting the votes; therefore this election is not over?

GORE: No, it's not a--that's not a political move. I mean, all of this
is, of course, in part because I want to see an outcome that I think will declare
that Joe Lieberman and I won the election. But more important than that, really
more important than that is the principle that every vote should be counted,
and that's important for our country, regardless of who the winner is.

Now, on the legal matter, I'll refer you to David Boies for that.

KING: OK, there--it has been 22 days, though, and if you look at the
polling and 6 in 10 Americans say--even Americans who believe you and think
that you won the election, 6 in 10 say it's time to move on?

GORE: Well, this is not an election about the election. This is a legal
question. It's a question that goes to the heart of what America is all about.
When votes are cast, they're counted. This is America. When you have people
legally casting votes, you can't arbitrarily, or for whatever reason, just refuse
to count them and set them aside.

And remember, there are far more than enough votes that have never been counted
in this race to determine the outcome. There are more than 10,000 that have
never been counted and the margin is a few hundred, and smaller than that if
you look at the votes that have--that were counted and that the other side has
filed lawsuit after lawsuit to try to keep out.

And remember, that's the cause of the delay here. We had the lawsuits filed
by Governor Bush's team, they were first to go into the courts on this, they
went to the U.S. Supreme Court, they filed delaying tactic after delaying tactic.
They had people inside the building where the votes were being counted in Miami-Dade.
These delaying tactics are wrong. We have to count the votes, that's really
the most important point.

KING: I want to repeat something to you that came to me from a very
close friend of yours and a longtime adviser, who said," Al believes passionately
in this. Al believes he won and I believe he's right, but I do worry that we
may reach a point where he's hurting himself," and that if it appears that this
is slipping away, we reach a line where the 2004 calculation, your own viability
comes into play.

Does that enter into your mind at all, that if this turns out in a way...

GORE: No.

KING: ... that is adverse to you, is there a point at which you need
to think about your own future should you want to run again? And would you run
again if this went the other way?

GORE: Look, you know, they started speculation about the 2000 race
probably three years beforehand and it's not over yet. So, I mean, I hope that
I'm going to be in a position to consider running for re-election in 2004.

But to answer your question seriously, John, whatever concern that I might
have about myself is not even on the radar screen compared to the obligation
that I feel to the 50 million people who supported Joe Lieberman and me, who
believed in the agenda that we put forward, who gave us more votes than any
Democratic ticket ever in the history of this country, more votes than any ticket
with the exception of Ronald Reagan in 1984.

But a higher obligation still is the obligation I have to the Constitution
and to the country to insist that the election have integrity and that it not
be something that ends with a cloud of illegitimacy, and there is one way to
do that and that is to count the votes.

And there are thousands and thousands of votes that have never been counted
even once. The other side said, well, they've been run through the machine,
but it's like that supermarket scanner: if the machine doesn't pick it up and
you know that they don't pick up a lot of them, you look at it by hand. That's
what the law says. That's what the law that Governor Bush signed in Texas says.
So if you just use the Texas standard that Governor Bush supported and signed
into law there, this would be the way to go. And under Florida law I think it's
very clear that when the machines have this kind of error rate and they don't
count votes, they have to be counted by hand.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: What do you think of everyday when you think of sustaining American
public opinion through this? Because that's obviously important if you are to
win and if you are to govern, and even if it turns out another way, just so
the American people have faith in the process that you want them to stay with
you with--stay with you through, I guess.

What do you think when you get up everyday in terms of when they--you know,
out for interviews like this, or out in public statements, in terms of trying
to convince the American people? You have talked about counting every vote,
is there, in your mind, sort of a timeline in here that you have to get to?
Even some Democrats saying they are with you, but this can't go on forever.

GORE: I think it's going to be over with by the middle of December
for sure. But in terms of strategy tactics, all that, you know, it's really
beside the point. I'm just focused on one simple goal and that is to insist
that the votes that have been cast be counted. If people legally cast votes,
they shouldn't be arbitrarily set aside, or set aside for any reason, they should
be counted. Isn't that a simple principle? I think it is.

KING: This is obviously uncharted waters, unprecedented territory.
One of the things happening as the legal challenge unfolds is the Florida legislature,
controlled by Republicans, is having a process of hearings now, and they've
been quite open about the possibility that if you succeed, if your challenge,
your contest is upheld, and if they count those votes and the courts say, Al
Gore won Florida, that they will regardless of that send to Washington a slate
of Republican electors directed by the state legislature to vote for Governor
Bush. What happens then?

GORE: I can't believe that the people of Florida want to see the expression
of their will taken away by politicians. The people of Florida have the right
to select the candidate for president that they--that they want.

If the politicians ever try to take that away from the people, I think you'd
see--I think you'd see quite a negative response to it.

KING: This has been a town in turmoil for the last few years: the impeachment
debate, relations between the Clinton-Gore administration and the Republican
Congress. Even the impeachment debate aside not always great.

Do you see this going to the United States Congress? Do you have a sense of
how the country would deal with that?

GORE: I can--I do not. I think this is all going to be over with by
the middle of December.

KING: Let me ask you to follow up with that: Let's assume you succeed.
You will take office on January 20th with a Republican Senate, very narrowly,
but a Republican Senate, and a Republican House--again very narrow. They will
make the case that you stole the election. Tom DeLay--do you think you can govern
in that environment?

GORE: I think that the best insurance for our country against either
side feeling that the outcome was not legitimate is to put it in the hands of
the people. That's why it's so important to count every vote. If the people
of the United States of America in their individual states--in this case in
Florida--make a judgment through their votes, then that can't be overturned.
That's not to be questioned.

And again, when the elections are close and hard fought, it's even more important
than in any other time to leave the final decision not with the politicians,
not with the people who control the election machinery, but with the people.
That's what our country is all about.

The revolutionary breakthrough more than 200 years ago that led to our nation,
the greatest in the history of the world, was the brave decision by our founders
to place ultimate trust in the people of this country. And whenever the decisions
about who's going to lead America are made, they're made by the people. And
anybody who tries to tamper with that is running against the American spirit,
the will of the people, and everything this country is based on.

KING: Two more quick questions: You were in this room, very room, a
short time ago with your running mate, Senator Lieberman...

KING: Where are you in that process? And are you ready--obviously,
you know, the public part of that at least delayed by the contest of the election...

GORE: Right.

KING: Do you have a Cabinet in mind? Do you--where are you?

GORE: Yes. I've made a lot of progress. Joe and I have been working
very hard on it, and we've tried to keep it a private process.

And I said the other night that I thought it was time for both Governor Bush
and I to move forward on this process. I choose to do it in a--in a way that
doesn't put a lot of names out there. He can choose his own way of doing it.
I'm not criticizing whatever approach he takes there.

But I think it's in the national interest that both of us be thorough and
meticulous in preparing for the transition that's going to take place for one
of us on January the 20th. And I will be ready.

KING: We have in this conversation talked about politics and polling,
lawyers and legal briefs, courts, votes, counts. This has to be emotionally
a pretty amazing roller-coaster, having gone through the campaign and being
exhausted at the end. We spoke near the end of the campaign. It's a tiring ordeal.

GORE: You were, too.

KING: I sure was. And it's 22 days later, and you know, you win one
day, you win one decision, it seems just hours later something goes against
you. Then you win another one and something goes against you...

GORE: It's an incredible story, the way it's unfolded, isn't it?

KING: What--what goes through your mind and who do you reach out to
when you want to get away from the lawyers and the consultant to just have a
little bit of personal peace?

GORE: My family, and faith and family, as I've said to you before,
is really the center of my life. And this is some--it is an unusual time, because
you prepare yourself to win. You prepare yourself for the possibility that you
won't win. You don't really prepare yourself for the possibility that you flip
the coin in the air and it lands on its edge and you get neither outcome.

But it's a heck of a lot of easier than the campaign schedule, I'll tell you
that. It's nice to sleep in the same bed every night and to be surrounded by
my family and to get seven, eight hours sleep and exercise every day. So in
many ways, it's much more relaxing and much easier than the campaign trail.

KING: Relaxing? The uncertainty doesn't drive you crazy?

GORE: It's all relative. It's relative. I said more so than the campaign.

KING: All right. We Would appreciate your time.

GORE: Playing with my grandson, for example, that's--which I've been
doing a lot of lately, that's--that's pretty relaxing.

KING: What will your grandson's eight-grade history book say about
this?

GORE: That the--that the Gore-Lieberman administration was a great
success following one of the most exciting and closely fought election contests
in American history. That's what I hope it'll say.